The researchers at MIT have succeeded in building a camera whose technology could someday change the way we take photos.

At first blush, MIT’s one-trillion frame per second camera seems to be just another piece of very expensive research equipment. Coming in right around $250,000, it falls just a bit outside what we might consider “consumer grade.”

Media Lab Associate Professor Ramesh Raskar said in a statement that their ultimate dream is to “create studio like lighting using just a compact flash.” According to Professor Raskar, using this photon capturing technology one might be able to “analyze how the photons are traveling through the world. And… recreate a new photo by creating the illusion that the photons started somewhere else.”

Of course this remains only a dream, but it seems the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have just moved us one step closer to what I’ll deem “Idiot Proof Photography.” No skill? No light? No problem!